rockmann.
/ˈrɒkmən/, U.S. /ˈrɑkmən/ 1. A quarryman whose job is to extract the slate in a slate quarry.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > quarrier > [noun] > specific
marler1275
marbler1478
rockmana1661
rubbler1858
hillman1865
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Yorks. 186 Large salaries to numerous Clarks, and daily wages to Rubbish-men, Rock-men, Pit-men, and House-men or Fire-men.
1865 J. Bower Slate Quarries 20 The rockman..gets the blocks in the quarry, and splits them..ready to be carried out to the sawing machinery.
1892 Min. Evid. Labour Comm. Group A. II. 2 He [sc. a rubbisher] is the man who carries away all the material from the rock-men to the place where the slates are made.
1956 Geogr. Rev. 46 81 There is considerable evidence of dust diseases among workmen employed in the dressing or sawing sheds, whereas rockmen working in the open quarries are virtually unaffected.
1984 J. Seymour Forgotten Arts (1985) 51/1 The rockmen utilize this habit to break slate out in rectangular blocks of about two tons each, generally blasting it with explosive.
2. Scottish (Orkney). A skilled rock climber, esp. one who catches young birds on rock faces. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > mountaineering or climbing > [noun] > mountaineer or climber
rock climber1767
rockman1798
cragsman1816
cliffsman1829
mountaineer1860
Alpestrian1861
alpinist1861
cliffer1861
glissader1861
ascensionist1863
alpenstocker1864
shin-scraper1869
hillmana1885
second1907
Munro-bagger1910
summiteer1926
middleman1968
rock jock1980
free soloist1984
1798 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XX. 264 The rockmen, as they are properly and significantly called, walk on the very edges of the shelves, in the very face of the rock.
1805 Scots Mag. 67 181/2 At a little township we called for the most active rockman or bird-hunter of the island, and engaged him to go a lyre-catching.
1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Rockman, a bird catcher, Orkn.; denominated from the hazardous nature of his employment, being often suspended from the top of a perpendicular rock.
1852 W. Macgillivray Hist. Brit. Birds V. 443 ‘This bird,’ says he, ‘is the chief acquisition our rock-men get for all the danger in climbing the most dreadful precipices.’
1978 A. Fenton Northern Isles lix. 514 The climbers were known as rockmen. The best climbers in Shetland were said to be in Foula.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.a1661